Synopsis

Background

Naruto Gaiden: Nanadaime Hokage to Akairo no Hanatsuzuki was published in English as Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump imprint on January 5, 2016; in Polish by J.P Fantastica on March 18, 2016; and in Brazilian Portuguese by Panini Comics/Planet Manga in October 2016.

So basically this is just more Naruto! This time the war is over you get some nostalgia with all the new children. 5 chapters in and I am pretty sure I can predict what enjoyment I will get out of it.

Story: 7
I mean when they finished Naruto I thought it was over, but really anything at this point is stretching the drawn out timeline, so it really doesn't deserve more than 7. But who came here for the story? Lets be honest this is the amazing Naruto kickstarted again

Plot Preview: (NOT REALLY SPOILERS but you need to know at-least the start of this new arc)
Just some new guys with sharingans are messing with all 5 villages and they are the new Akatsuki. Sasuke is not in the village but he is protecting them remotely by tailing new threats.

Art: 9
It is the same quality as Naruto. But the new characters (children of the old characters) seem a little bit forced in terms of looks, because they had to mashup the ships.

Character: 8
Same characters bro. The new children ones are well they are still like 9 or 10 so they really only possess childish stereotypes.

Enjoyment: 10
More Naruto = Better Life (If you can't tell by now I really like Naruto) Still exciting it hasn't lost its edge if you bought all of that stuff at the end of the original Naruto series.

Overall: 10 (This should be 8.5, but Naruto is what started my love of Anime so I weigh enjoyment much higher than others)
The Manga picks up where it left off, and it does a good enough job to continue reading Naruto.

I'm disappointed with this whole spin off / sequel ( I don't even think if you can even call this crap a sequel).

I only read this spin off because i did like part 1 and 2 in some parts but this...it throws logic out of the window, already established by kishimoto himself. We got introduced with the new k11, which i was happy to see what's up with them, but no... kishimoto only focuses on chocho, trying to be funny but she isn't, and sarada with uchiha family all over again!

I thought we're going to see at least 2 volumes about the new k11
doing the gennin/chunnin exams. To see their abilities and personalities and compare them with their parents. In the gennin/chunnin exams we could get a villain like garaa, you know the ''cool!'' kids that believes they're better than others, coming from different villages and i was hoping to see something besides UCHIHA. I was left in disappointment.

The villain that we got in this spin off was terrible. Oh my god, if we compare shin with kaguya, I would freaking choose kaguya any day of the week. His reasoning about revenge is stupid and it doesn't make any sense to have a revenge at this point of time / timeline, which he could have done it when naruto and sasuke fought and were in their weaken state (He was in the fight watching from far away, there's a scan that it shows a person seeing the fight but never participated...)

Let me finish my review of this spin off with sarada and this whole pointless drama. She's a sakura v2, let's just state that she's no different than her mother. This whole drama or plot that we got in 10 chapters was pointless. We got barely character development in my opinion.

The only good thing that I found positive was to see the new kids, that's it!

After the dreadful ending of "Naruto", many fans were left wondering if the series could get any worse. With this sequel, Kishimoto has proven that it can, in fact, get worse.

After the ending on "Naruto" left a bad taste in my mouth, I wondered whether I should start reading this or not. As an old fan of the series, as well as since I had nothing better to do, I decided to read it. The story starts off right after chapter 700 of "Naruto" and focuses mostly on Sarada Uchiha, the daughter of Sasuke and Sakura. I won't go into much detail, but Sarada, after
looking at a picture of Karin, went on a quest to find out who her real mother is. The whole premise sounds like one of those cheap soap operas which your grandma probably watches.

The art style is okay, there's nothing bad about it, and there's nothing too exceptional about it either, so there's no point writing much about it.

As for the characters, they haven't changed much. Naruto is still the usual idiot, Sakura is still rages about everything and Sasuke manages to become even more unlikable. The new character, Sarada, has all the bad personality traits of her father: she is insecure, and looks like she'll decide to "destroy Konoha" every minute. As for the villains, Kishimoto has chosen to create some new ones. However, due to his limited creativity, they are (spoiler) still related to the Uchiha clan, even though there are countless other villages and families to choose from. Anyway, the goals of the main villain are stupid, and they are overall very forgettable.

After the Pain arc, my enjoyment of "Naruto" has fallen more and more after each chapter. I thought this manga would capture once again the spirit of the beginning of "Naruto", but at this point, it is so bad that it becomes funny.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A LOT OF SPOILERS. Not that you're gonna wanna watch/read it anyway(The manga, not my review...hehe). Rant mode on.

P.S. Over here when I say fanservice, I do not mean ladies wearing swimsuits or things like that.

The Naruto ending sucked. Others may have different opinions but to me, I hated the way Naruto ended and so did quite a few people. They were telling us about ho the world was formed and all...did we care? No! The manga was ENDING for god's sake! HOW was knowing the origin of the Shinobi world gonna have ANY impact on the story at all?

Then the last
chapter of Naruto came out and I was SERIOUSLY disappointed. Seriously! Devoting a whole chapter in introducing the characters kids...and for what? Fan-service? To show that our characters were now mature and all? Naruto was a show about constant development of Naruto and it showed. We were told how Naruto was the underdog ninja whom everybody hated and how he grew up to be the protector of the world (Even though it was a bit too quick at the beginning and corny at the end, it was fun). And the manga finale HAD to be a Naruto vs. Sasuke and they didn't give us any proper reason for it.

And then this came out. A Naruto SPIN-OFF(not a sequel) featuring the next generation of ninjas (i.e. the main characters kids). It was interesting at the beginning and then...

The creators somehow took us for fools. (I don't normally say anything about a writer but here, I had to). The ending just sucked. Even Naruto ended better than that! Even the fillers of Naruto Shippuden were better than this s**t.

So the story is based on Sasuke and Sakura's daughter called Sarada(which is the Japanese pronunciation of SALAD! Who even calls someone a salad!? You don't even use it to insult!) She somehow starts suspecting that her mother is not really her mother. Soon she sees a picture of Karin. Curious, she sets of to find her father. Meanwhile dark forces are stirring.

The premise is pretty good. Plus it gives us even more of a depth to Salad..oh I meant Sarada. She sees that even the Seventh Hokage (who is Naruto..yaay!) is going to find Sasuke because of these dark forces and she and Chocho (Choji's daughter) secretly accompany him (Chocho because she thinks Choji is not her father). This leads to a shocking revelation.

Good so far, right? Well that's about as good as it gets. Then we find out a few more things. Those 'Dark Forces'? Just some Uchiha's(with a lot of Sharingan's like Danzo) wanting to revive the Akatsuki! Yes! To revive the Akatsuki! Why? No one knows. Even after you finish the final chapter!

Things keep getting worse and worse as you continue through the chapters. You realize those are the only new things created in the story. The Father-Daughter thing in the beginning was forgotten and any references of it were just as cheesy and at the wrong moment each time. (once during the final battle!)

And after all was said and done, no one died (the enemies who were apparantly stronger than Kaguya were scared off by Salad's SHANNARO), the villains got sent to an ORPHANAGE(around 500 of them!) and we learn that Salad is actually Sakura's daughter because of some half-arsed explanation about the umbilical cord. Bonus: Chocho considers Choji her father again! Yaay!

The art style was good. Just how Naruto was and no panel was wasted. However the action scenes were a bit hard to understand. No qualms there too.

Now the characters. Except for Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, all the other ninjas(the earlier MC's) were thrown in for fanservice. Team 7 is just how we remember them. It is easy to see that Salad and Chocho are their parents daughters because of their personalities. We even get to take a look at Boruto(Japanese for Bolt), Shikadai, and this random child called Mitsuki.

Nice right? Now here's the best part, most of them are just stand-ins!(I was being sarcastic if you didn't understand). Most of them come only for a scene or two. Did you see the MAL cover? The kid in there was Boruto! And what's more...his only job was to deliver a package to Naruto! Even Chocho was there just for comic-relief. Poor comic-relief.

Salad is interesting for some time in the beginning, until she turns into the damsel of distress that was Sakura. Sakura seems to have show some change because of being a mother and Naruto has show some seriousness as he is the Hokage. However that's the only change you're gonna see. Everything else is the same. Plus, we don't see any other proof that the world has advanced, like no new technological aspects or whatever which is sad because Naruto was good at world-building.

All in all, I did not enjoy reading this. It was a bore and was there just to satisfy people who wanted more Naruto. It left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Now for some scoring,
Story:-4/10 And I'm being generous
Art:-8/10:-Well drawn
Character:-4/10 Mostly there for fanservice
Enjoyment:-4/10 Meh
Overall:-4/10 Even Naruto fillers were better than this

The GOOD:-
(+)Nostalgic
(+)Interesting at the beginning

The BAD:-
(-)Most of the characters are stand-in's
(-)Horrible villains
(-)Forgot it's main purpose
(-)The ending that was flawed in every aspect.

Thanks for reading my review. Any suggestions or criticisms will be appreciated.

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Even though the official Naruto manga has ended, it doesn't mean that the life hasn't gone on in the shinobi world. Naruto's legacy continues, and now it's time for the next generation to appear and make their mark in the world. The Naruto Gaiden series starts here!